CANDLEMASS: Epicus Doomicus Metallicus Vinyl LP

Before doom metal had a rulebook, Candlemass wrote the one everyone else copied.

Epicus Doomicus Metallicus arrived in 1986 from Stockholm carrying the full weight of the genre it essentially codified. Leif Edling's bass-forward compositions, the glacial tempos, Messiah Marcolin's operatic delivery on later pressings, the sheer heaviness that owed more to Black Sabbath's funeral procession side than its hard rock one, this is the record that drew the line between heavy metal and doom metal and dared you to cross it. Solitude, A Sorcerer's Pledge, Crystal Ball, they remain benchmarks. If you take doom seriously, this sits in your collection. If you're new to it, start here.

Vinyl LP. Debut album, originally released 1986. Sweden. Genre: epic doom metal.

Fans of: Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Pentagram